BES900 replacing solenoid gasket

I’ve had the BES900 for approximately 2 and a half years and have noticed over the last 6 months (to be honest maybe a little longer than that) that I’ve been getting less water through the group head, it has also been hard to get it up to pressure and steam hasn’t been as quick and was watery.

I’ve been watching the BES900 threads for a while and have seen the problems others have had, so after first checking everything else, making sure everything was clean, checking that the hoses were all intact around the brass OPV, I knew there was only one solution, the solenoid gasket needed replacing.

As you can see in the following photo, the solenoid is the black box. The photo is from after the replacement and you can see the new white silicone gasket between the solenoid and the base block.

All you need to take it apart is a spanner, a phillips head screwdriver and something to cut the cable tie that holds the hose onto the top section of the solenoid. Remember to get yourself a new cable tie to replace the one you cut off.

After using the spanner to unscrew the nut on the top of the black solenoid block you will see that the it slides off and you are left with this top section that screws onto the base block. Unscrew this. If it is anything like mine you will see lots of green and black gunk on both surfaces. If you are really lucky you might even have the remainders of the tiny gaskets still there.

When cleaning the surfaces make sure you unscrew the shaft from the base and clean it all, I found parts of the gaskets stuck in the holes.

When cleaning the base I was careful to not get any of the old gunk down the holes. I did give it a good scrub with a scourer pad once I’d made sure there wasn’t any large parts to block the holes.

The gasket you will need can be ordered from the Breville service centres, you can find them on the Breville website in Australia or America.

The spare parts part number that you need is 100 – GASKET KIT FOR SOLENOID VALVE

Australia – BES900/100 – $7

America – BES900XL/100

Canada – BPBES900100

I have been told that the new gasket is now ceramic, I have ordered one but as yet I haven’t heard anything. I was told by the service centre that they might not be able to get them until they have sold all of the silicone ones.

The two pieces on the right hand side. I have no idea what they are for, they didn’t seem to fit anywhere, if anyone knows put it in the comments. Leaving them off doesn’t appear to affect it.

The way I have laid it out is how it goes on.

You will be able to see that there is only one way it can go on and the bumps are larger on one side where they side into the top section.

Finally, put it all back together. As the top section is screwed to the bottom block you’ll see that the gasket has a slight waver of the outside section, it was screwed on fairly tight.

When you ring to order the gasket you might want to ask for a replacement hose as well, as you can see in the first photo it’s gone brown and it is also really sticky.

There is no part number for the hose I was told. I’m waiting for one to arrive as they didn’t have any in stock.

Once everything is back together you should be right to go, it may make some weird noises for a minute or so, just make sure you have enough water in the tank and let it go, it does stop once everything is ‘primed’.

Lastly you should find that you’ll have to adjust your grinder, I had a few separate spurting sections going all over the place out of the naked 😀

46 Responses to BES900 replacing solenoid gasket

Ron Chambers

June 8, 2014 at 10:42 PM

The unidentified items, if I am looking at what you are referring to, look like spare sstl nylon hose end ferrule inserts

Hi, thank you so much for the instructions on how to replace this gasket. No doubt it has saved me over a hundred dollars in labour costs. I did just find out however that the small metal pieces in with the gasket do actually serve a purpose. The two holes that the gasket is sealing, (i.e. not the 4 screw holes), those 2 left over metal pieces are supposed to fit down through the gasket and into the holes themselves, keeping the hole open. ( I guess the gasket may expand into the holes over time and block/ restrict the flow). Hope that helps, and thinks for your help! Lee

It’s definitely a weird one, if they were bigger I’d understand the intent but something that small, they were on their way to falling down the holes, I’m not having any problems with them out at present, when I replace the hose I might have another look at it and see what I think.

The screws, Philips head and torx, you need to remove are at the front, there are holes to stick your screwdriver up into, one on the right hand side of the tamper and the other is in front of the hot water outlet.

The other screws are at the top back (torx screws) and then above the water tank (take the tank out to see them).

This website is the best how-to for the BES900! All it is missing is a page on descaling the machine. Have you done this? If so how about a write up. As a lot of us have had these machines for a few yrs now a thorough descale would be a great idea?

Hi Tim
Thanks for the thumbs up 😀
No I haven’t descaled yet, it is something I plan on doing though.
I’m going to chat to someone that already has some experience doing this and see how I go.
As I’ve done with everything else I will put up instructions once I know that it’s worked and hasn’t caused any lasting damage.

I am trying to source a new solenoid valve and gasket in California but have had no luck (solenoid make a horrible buzzing noise). I contacted Breville USA directly and they told me they do not offer parts due to liability and the few repair centers I have contacted claim that Breville stopped supplying these parts. Does anyone know of a service center that would have the parts and / or if a parker valve will fit? This valve http://www.ebay.com/itm/111580183620 looks remarkably similar but I have not found anyone that has tried one.

Hi, great information here. I was hoping you can help me understand better the symptoms of a bad gasket. Today my 900xl was working fine. The “clean me” light came on so I ran a cleaning cycle with a cleaning tab. After that I wasn’t getting any pressure or water to make coffee. The steAm and hot water outlet still work fine. Could the cleaning process and tablet have damaged something causing the lack of pressure and flow? Is the fix for this replacing the gasket? Thanks for any help or direction you can provide.

Hi Jon
The instructions are for replacing the gasket.
Symptoms can include decreased water flow through group head, increased time to get up to pressure, steam being slow and watery.
Cleaning your machine shouldn’t cause it in itself BUT what might happen is that when cleaning the chemicals could remove the build up and then it could get clogged in the gasket, especially if the gasket is already falling apart.
Do you take all the normal steps in cleaning your machine? Taking the screen off and cleaning all the way to the seal.

Hi Andrew
Which parts are you after?
The brass OPV is an Expobar spare part, which can be found through service centres or spare parts suppliers of Expobar products.
The gasket is a Breville part, personally I purchased from a service centre but I do know that others have been lucky enough to get the part from Breville themselves.

My seals are completely different. I only have two small, flat, round silicone seals that insert into the holes under the solenoid assy instead of a seal covering the entire bottom place. The two pieces you aren’t sure of were inserted through the seal with the flange side on the solenoid side of the seal.
Hope my explanation makes sense. I’ll post a picture if you want.

Thank you very much, I was wondering about which way the two extra bits went.
You saved me on this one as i currently got the machine opened up and stalled on the two extra bits which my old solenoid did not have!

Like Tony, I have found my solenoid devoid of a gasket, just small white round seals. I also discovered that if I blow thru the shaft air only comes out one of the holes. Is this normal? I get good steam, but I am suddenly getting no water to the group head (thus this exploration!). Any other thoughts?

Well, I’m having a really tough time trying to source this part in USA (California). Breville says that ereplacementparts.com handles part sales, and ereplacementparts has the part listed as discontinued.

Has anyone in the USA recently been able to get this or a comparable part? Heck, I’d be willing to get it shipped from AU/NZ if I had to.

Just ordered a “solenoid replacement kit” from Breville Australia, $75 +$10 postage. I did ask for part 100 but was told they don’t have part numbers and maybe to try their local repairers for just the gasket part. I thought about it for a second and decided it will be less effort and a better chance of resolving my low flow issue with the more expensive replacement kit (at least i wont have the clean the old parts)
I wonder if the kit comes with hoses?

Thank you heaps Nic for the repair guide!
I’ll report back on how it all turns out.

Well The Solenoid replacement kit arrived and its basically just the solenoid with the two plastic washers and two small metal pins. No Gasket.

Ive opened up my BES900 and was shocked to see no Gasket!

How could this be? I have bought the machine of gumtree second hand but i doubt its from that. I have a Black Sesame BES900 if that helps anyone with why there is no gasket. Please look at pics in link.

Great work in your description Nic. I had the same problem and my replacement gasket was $8.80. My original gaskets were the small o rings as described by Tony – I was told by the service centre in my city that the gasket you used is relatively new. It has worked a treat and I feel that I have a new machine. I believe I saved over a hundred dollars in labor costs – can now get some extra good beans!

Aluminum brew head / Stainless Steel Solenoid / Mild Steel Screws, no wonder there’s a problem with corrosion. Grade 9 science class teaches you about electrolysis. I can’t believe what I just saw when I replaced my ‘o’ rings. It explains the new square silicone gasket. They are trying to keep all the dissimilar metals from touching.

Peter – I assume your replacement gasket is of the new style. Where were you able to find it?
I’ve developed a new problem since my last successful solenoid replacement 4 months ago. I get no water flowing from the group head. I have hot water trying to enter but not leaving. When I disconnect the hose just below the solenoid, hot water is flowing. Would the solenoid open or close that water path? Could my 4 month solenoid have failed already or is that not its function.

Great article! My three year old BES900 suddenly lost all its brew pressure a few weeks ago. Your write-up and the additional comments from folks above allowed me to easily fix the problem by swapping out the disintegrated O-rings with the much larger gasket. I’m in SoCal and had to source the gasket all the way from NZ (needapart.co.nz). Love having that machine back in operation, thank you so much for helping the community!

Awesome article + great tips in the comments too, I just did this on my 4 year old machine, similar storey to others, been having trouble with mine for about 2 years now, water dribbling out and only 1.5 bar whn pulling shots. I had the seal + the solenoid replaced under warranty about 2 years ago, but the repair man hadn’t put those little funnels in so the holes must have been getting partially blocked. Now it works as I remember (fingers crossed it goes for a while longer. Thanks Pasi for the needapart.co.nz link. And thanks Nic, for the great article. I had almost given up on this, as I have little faith in my local repair man now. I asked him about descaling my machine, he didn’t know anything about doing that…. Anyone gone down that road with the BES900? Cheers Roly from NZ

My bes900 seems to have 2 problems, one is no pressure as described above so I will need the gasket . Other problem is that the boiler seems to keep boiling non stop, making overflow steam coming out to the water tank and steam coming out from the top refill panel.

Set the temperature to 93 degree. And sometime it goes up to 96. Sometime it stop at 93 but the “93” is flashing instead of staying like usual.

Steam works fine and hot water works fine

When I press the manual button, water coming out from the group and the overflow steam slow down . As soon as I stop the manual button, overflow start again and I can hear the little turbine device thing spin really quickly because of the amount of steam trying to escape from the boiler (not the middle boiler)

Sorry forgot to also mention when I open the top cover , I saw a little spring with a round transparent rubber tip hanging around at the inside compartment, have no idea where to put it back . I try to attach a picture of the spring but don’t know how to
The spring is 13mm long with a removable 5mm semi transparent ball shape rubber tip

The solenoid has 2 plastic white disc and 2 little pin. The disc are hard but looks good condition . Are they suppose to be soft? I can’t see any leaking from solenoid when I turn on the machine .

Kelvin, you need to replace the o-rings on the steam boiler, where the probes and plastic hoses enter the boiler. They are a size #007. They are easy to find in Viton and inexpensive, and it will work, but that is not the ideal material. silicone o-rings in size #007 is the way to go. you should be able to find them in any big city.

I had the exact same problems you have. now totally fixed and working great. heater no longer keeps running indefinitely.

I definitely need to do an overhaul of hoses as well, which of course I can’t get Breville or their service centres to understand what I’m after. The main reply from Breville is ‘no idea, speak to a service centre’, speak to a service centre and they tell me that it’s not something they can order.

Uni finishes for the year in three weeks so I can sit down and pull it apart again.

Kelvin

July 28, 2016 at 10:51 AM

My bes900 looks like keep heating even it reach the set temperature , the hot steam have to escape to the little hole inside the water container compartment . There is a hole on top of the water container that the steam coming out

Thanks for writing this article. I had low pressure, and I suspected something near the grouphead. Your article encouraged me to look at my solenoid valve. When I pulled my valve apart, one of the self tapping screws snapped off. Mine had no gasket and 2 orange orings that looked chewed up and blocking the holes. I drilled out the scale restricted holes, scraped the surfaces clean, replaced orings with generic o-rings and clamped it back together with only 3 screws. Works fantastic with no leaks. Ordering a new set of silicon seals as I dont know how long it will last with $2 shop black o-rings.

Yes the orange rings, that’s normal, as in ‘you want something made at a minimum of cost, you get minimum quality’ – THIS is not a ‘made in China’ fault.

The Chinese manufacturers pride themselves on being able to make anything, for anyone, at any cost.

Where the problem lies is with the company ordering the products, they get a great prototype, exactly what they want BUT someone in the background has said ‘we need to make 20% more profit, ask them to do it cheaper’.

China’s reply is sure no problems, the company isn’t interested in testing a new prototype, after all it’s the same machine, same parts, it’s just cheaper…

I’m not saying that Breville actually did the above process, it’s not uncommon though.

Thank you Nic for an amazing website.
I just purchased a used BES900, only 620 shots made with it, but I am experiencing pressure problems. When I put in a blind filter the pressure went up to 9, now it goes up to 11 after adjusting the OPV according to your instructions.

BUT, when I am making a single or double shot coffee, the pressure goes nowhere, it moves up a little to the first or second bar if I am lucky. Have tried several bean brands, tried different grinds using my Breville BCG450 grinder. Nothing works!

Hey Daniel,
When you moved the OPV, were you testing it as you went?
The OPV moves either way and the only way you’ll know if it needs more or less is to actually have it on, blind filter in and test it.